The blood tests carried out, as usual, by the UCI "vampires" on all Tour of Italy registered riders before the Giro kick-off claimed their first victim also this time: Portugal's Nuno Ribeiro.

The haematic values of the Liberty Seguros Würth Team athlete were reportedly above the standard (the threshold for men is 50 percent), and the cyclist was consequently excluded from the race. This is not good news, but the Giro is not new to such pre-race "surprises", as
the same thing occurred to Colombian Uberlino Mesa Estepa (Colombia-Selle Italia) and Slovenia's Jure Golcer (Formaggi Pinzolo-Fiavé) twelve months ago. Also in that case both cyclists weren't allowed to take the start, and were suspended from all racing for a period of 15 days.